Northwestern Ohio towns slow to recover from floods

Monday

Oct 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 30, 2007 at 3:16 AM

OTTAWA, Ohio (AP) -- Homes and businesses remain empty more than two months after powerful storms and record flooding washed through northwestern Ohio, a sign that progress remains slow for officials and residents working to repair flood-damaged cities and towns.

OTTAWA, Ohio (AP) -- Homes and businesses remain empty more than two months after powerful storms and record flooding washed through northwestern Ohio, a sign that progress remains slow for officials and residents working to repair flood-damaged cities and towns.

Yellow caution tape still closes off buildings on the west side of the village of Ottawa, about 60 miles southwest of Toledo. Weeks of newspapers have piled up on doorsteps.

"At night it's like a ghost town. It's dark and quiet," said Kristy Nienberg, an Ottawa resident whose home is surrounded by four or five blocks of abandoned houses.

"I was fortunate the insurance money came fast. A lot of people didn't get their money as fast, if they even had flood insurance," she said. Because of the quick insurance payoff, Nienberg hoped to be back in her home within a few weeks.

Progress and repairs continue, but it's difficult to say when things will return to normal, said John Williams, Ottawa's municipal director.

"I think it's sporadic," Williams said. "People are coming back to most neighborhoods."

Several days of heavy rain in late August caused widespread flooding across an 80-mile swath of northwestern and north-central Ohio. In Ottawa, the Blanchard River swelled beyond its banks, and about half the downriver town took on water.

There's an urgency to finishing repairs and installing heating systems before winter begins, Williams said. Some residents are living on the second floor of their homes while work is completed on the first floor, he said.

At the abandoned Arrowhead Trailer Park along Rt. 224 north of town, workers continued to strip flood-damaged trailers for scrap metal. After about two-dozen trailers were destroyed by the flood, village officials said the park would be closed permanently.

One of the bigger challenges facing homeowners is working to prevent future flooding from causing so much damage, Williams said. Some people are flood-proofing their homes or raising their buildings above the flood plain. Others are moving away.

"Some have said they don't want to deal with flooding anymore at their present location," Williams said. "They've dealt with it several times."

The village also is in the process of trying to buy some of the destroyed or heavily damaged homes through a Federal Emergency Management Agency program, Williams said.

Initial assessments found $26.7 million worth of damage to public facilities and property in the seven counties, including $11.7 million in Hancock County and $8.3 million in Putnam County, the Ohio Department of Public Safety said.

To date, FEMA has issued $17 million in grants for disaster relief in the region, spokesman Randy Welch said.

Also as of last week, 422 low-interest loans for $15.24 million were approved to repair disaster damaged property from the flooding, according to U.S. Small Business Administration spokesman Jack Camp. In Putnam County alone, 97 loans were approved for $4.31 million.